Corey Graves
Before signing a contract with WWE, Graves made several appearances for the company. On April 26, 2006, Graves, as Sterling James Keenan, and CM Punk lost a dark match to The Gymini prior to a SmackDown taping. On June 6, 2006, Keenan teamed with Jon Bolen in a loss to Jamie Noble and Kid Kash. Keenan appeared on an episode of WWE Heat that was taped on August 6, losing to Val Venis. Keenan appeared on the August 10, 2007, episode of SmackDown!, where he was easily squashed by Mark Henry. In June 2012, Keenan (now known as Corey Graves) and Jake Carter participated in the inaugural tapings for WWE NXT. They defeated CJ Parker and Nick Rogers in match aired in July. Graves was established as a singles wrestler on November 14 with a win over Oliver Grey; Following a submission victory over Yoshi Tatsu in December, Graves attacked the NXT Champion Seth Rollins, and was awarded a title match on the January 2, 2013 episode of NXT. Graves failed to capture the championship despite winning via disqualification following interference from Rollins' associates in The Shield. After singles victories over former partner Carter and Alex Riley, Graves faced Conor O'Brian in a number one contender's match; the match ended in a no contest after The Shield attacked both men, and Graves later lost in a triple threat number one contender's match. Graves transitioned into a feud with The Shield, challenging them to a match for costing him title opportunities. He faced Rollins in a lumberjack match, which he lost when the other members of The Shield interfered. In May, Graves began feuding with The Wyatt Family following a confrontation (and later match) with leader Bray Wyatt. After being eliminated by Wyatt in a battle royal, Graves teamed with Kassius Ohno to unsuccessfully challenge Luke Harper and Erick Rowan for the NXT Tag Team Championship, and Graves, Ohno, and Adrian Neville lost to The Wyatt Family in a six-man tag team match. After the Wyatts injured Ohno in storyline, Graves began regularly teaming with Neville, and on the July 18 episode of NXT, they defeated Harper and Rowan to capture the NXT Tag Team Championship. The duo held the championship for nearly three months, before losing to The Ascension in September. After failing to regain the title, Graves attacked Neville to provoke a feud, thus turning heel. They traded victories, before Graves suffered a legitimate concussion, rendering him temporarily inactive. He returned in January 2014, to enter a feud with Sami Zayn. Graves defeated Zayn on April 3 but was defeated in a 6-man tag team match teaming with The Ascension against Zayn and The Usos. Graves then suffered a second concussion, causing him to be absent from television for several months. Graves returned on the NXT TakeOver: R Evolution pre-show on December 11, where he announced his official in-ring retirement due to his concussion issues. He also announced that he would be joining NXT's commentary team with immediate effect, with his duties beginning at that event. Graves was then offered a two-year commentary contract by Triple H, and was later added to the pre-show panel for Raw. He also hosted WWE Culture Shock, a WWE Network original series. Despite being drafted to Raw, Graves continued to provide color commentary for NXT until the February 1, 2017 episode. On the pre-show for NXT TakeOver: San Antonio, Graves announced he would be leaving NXT after that event, with Nigel McGuinness taking his place on commentary. Following the 2016 WWE draft, it was announced that Graves would be joining the Raw commentary team. On July 25, on the first post brand split episode of Raw, Graves began serving as a color commentator alongside Michael Cole and Byron Saxton. On November 29, Graves joined the commentary team for the Cruiserweight division's WWE Network exclusive show, 205 Live, alongside Mauro Ranallo and Austin Aries. In March 2017, following Ranallo's absence from commentary and Aries' return to in-ring action, Graves would be joined by Tom Phillips on commentary for 205 Live. On the May 29 episode of Raw, Graves would directly report to Raw General Manager Kurt Angle about some "scandalous information" that was sent to him about Angle, with Angle telling Graves that if the news broke out, it would ruin him. On the June 19 episode of Raw, as Angle tried to resolve the mystery of who attacked both Enzo and Cass over the last few weeks, Graves would show security footage of Big Cass faking his attack, which led to Cass revealing himself as the one who attacked Enzo Amore, before attacking Amore once again, officially disbanding the team. Graves would continue to support Angle about his personal information that was sent to him, which Angle would reveal on the July 17 episode of Raw, announcing that Jason Jordan was his storyline son. On September 4, it was announced that Graves would also join the SmackDown Live announce team after JBL departed from the company, making Graves the only current announcer to commentate both Raw and SmackDown Live, as a heel color commentator.Category:SmackDown Superstars Category:NXT Tag Team Champions